Ashayam
by MellodramaticLawliet
Summary: Kirk is injured during what was supposed to be a peaceful negotiation, and Spock finds himself to be emotionally compromised. Oneshot, Spirk, (based on a tumblr post)


There was no time to think. He acted without even considering what might happen to himself, and it ended in blood.

...

It had begun as any other day began aboard the Starship Enterprise. James T. Kirk made the rounds, greeted his crew, and drank his coffee piping hot right from the replicator. One sugar, no milk. Average.

A signal came over one of the consoles and Lt. Uhura notified him of an incoming call from a strange planet in the outer rim. Plutus VIII or something like that. The Klingons had decided to encroach on their trading grounds and the Plutonians wanted the Enterprise to mediate their peace negotiations. It wasn't everyday they had to deal with Klingons, but the situation itself was fairly commonplace.

The landing party consisted only of Kirk, Spock, and Chekov since Bones was preoccupied with the most recent outbreak of the flu among the crew.

The first few hours of the negotiations went by without event; quite literally as Jim was bored to the point of fidgeting as the negotiations droned on and on and on. Much to the chagrin of Spock, who alone managed to stay awake until the midway break when they were all allowed to stretch their legs, go to the bathroom, and generally commiserate that they were stuck there for another three hours.

Jim and Spock decided to remain in the briefing room along with Chekov who was sound asleep and all but dead to the world anyway. The room was nicely decorated, with close to twelve old fashioned crystal chandeliers adorning the high ceiling, and colorful mosaics painting the walls with scenes from the planet's history.

Jim was just begining to debate whether to nudge Chekov awake or let the poor guy sleep when they heard a scream emanating from the hallway. Jim and Spock raced to find the source of the screams, with Chekov on their heels groggily struggling to fix the setting on his phaser.

"That's the Prime Minister's assistant." Jim stopped dead in his tracks as they came upon a body lying in the entrance to the bathrooms. The rest of the Plutonian delegation, and various members of the Klingon party surrounded it, casting suspicious glances at one another.

"Indeed." Spock knelt down beside it with his tricorder already in his hands.

Jim set his phaser to stun, and went to search the bathroom for any signs of the murderer. Not finding any, he returned to the group of onlookers and knelt next to Spock.

"She was poisoned." Spock read from his tricorder, "I can't be sure what type of poison was used until we can send the body to be examined by the lab."

"Good work Mr. Spock." Jim stood and surveyed the group of onlookers, searching for a guilt face, "Where is the Prime Minister?"

"I sent her back to the board room with Ensign Chekov in case the killer was still roaming the halls." Spock informed him.

Jim chewed his lip thoughtfully, still searching the crowd around them, all of whom had begun to whisper conspiratorially among themselves, continuing to send suspicious glances at one another. The Klingon commander was smirking, though Jim chose to ignore him, he knew this particular commander from another border dispute near Ceres Alta II. He was a particularly nasty person, though not completely unreasonable.

If the poisoner had been him, Jim knew he would have been gone by then. He assumed the target would have been the Prime Minister if her poor assistant hadn't managed to get caught in the crossfire. After a mistake like this, the Klingon Commander would have surely fled the planet, fearing the mobilization of the Plutonian forces.

If it wasn't him then... Jim struggled to put names to all of the faces before him. One of them had to be the killer.

Spock leaned over to him, whispering, "Does the Commander's assistant look familiar to you, Captain?"

Kirk squinted at the Klingon standing to the right of his commander, and realized suddenly that he didn't. He must have been a decoy to make it seem like none of the Klingons were missing.

Realizing what this must mean, Jim took off back to the board room without an explanation and the anxious Plutonians converged on Spock, asking him endless questions as he attempted to follow.

He arrived at the board room to find Chekov unconscious on the floor. The Plutonian Prime Minister and the Klingon assassin were at a draw, phasers pointed at one another in a silent battle to see who would shoot first.

"Drop your phaser and step away from the Prime Minister." Jim entered the room slowly, keeping his own phaser steadily locked on the Klingon. His eyes darted back and forth between the minister and Kirk, quickly realizing he was out matched.

With a sigh, the Klingon began to lift his weapon, "You're too late, captain."

Before Jim could move, the Klingon fired at one of the hanging chandeliers, managing to hit the iron ring attaching it to the ceiling. Jim watched it fall as if in slow motion. He knew the Prime Minister wouldn't move out of the way in time. The Klingon had already turned and was sprinting toward the open doorway.

There was no time to think. He acted without even considering what might happen to himself, and it ended in blood.

...

Jim woke up in the medbay several hours later covered in hundreds of cuts and scratches, one wrist cast, and a dull ache in the back of his head. Only nine or ten of his cuts seemed to have needed mending, though quite a few of them were close to critical arteries. Overall he thought he fared quite well for having a chandelier crash on top of him. His shirt was surely in tatters, and there was no doubt Bones would make fun of him for it later.

He blinked heavily, definitely concussed, and lifted his eyes to find Spock sitting at his bedside. This struck him as odd considering the clock indicated it was well into their shift and his injuries weren't exactly life threatening.

The Vulcan's expression gave nothing away, though Jim recognized the deep green bruises under his eyes.

"Spock?" Jim reached out and Spock took his uninjured hand, sending calming waves through their mental bond.

"You were unconscious for approximately 9.478 hours, Captain." His voice sounded odd, though Jim's question was interrupted by the arrival of Bones and his five hundred hyposprays.

"Jim, you look awful." Bones seemed almost gleeful as he shot hypo after hypo into Kirk's arm.

"Bones... what-" Jim flinched as he was jabbed again, "These can't all be for my injuries."

"Nope." Bones grinned at him, "These are from all the times in the past few months that you've skipped your checkup. I've kept track of every planet you've been on in that time, and all of the diseases you could have possibly encountered."

"Bones." Jim groaned, reading the label on one of the hypos, "I'm fairly confident that I haven't contracted Andorian Herpes in the last two months."

"Well how do I know that if you haven't been to your checkups?" Bones smirked at him, then as an afterthought turned to Spock, "What, no clever comeback? Or do I need to give you a hypo for Andorian Herpes as well?"

Wordlessly, Spock stood and walked to the door, turning briefly to inform the captain that he would be in their quarters when Jim was released from the medbay, before striding silently down the hall.

"What in the name of mint julep was that about?" Bones raised an eyebrow at him, "Did you two fight or something?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Jim frowned, "I need to go talk to him, Bones, we both know I'm fine. Can I go?"

"In a pig's eye you are!" He pulled out yet another hypo, "I haven't even vaccinated you for the Klingon Augment Virus yet."

"Bones."

"Jim."

They engaged one another in a silent staring contest for a minute or so until Kirk lost and decided to take matters into his own hands. Knocking over the tray of hyposprays, he made a run for it, succeeding in escaping into the hallway as Bones nearly tripped over a vaccine for Vulcan Shingles.

Laughing to himself, Jim merrily made his way to the quarters he shared with Spock, mentally congratulating himself on escaping another unnecessary doctor's visit.

He entered their room to find Spock meditating on the bed, his back straight, and his eyes closed. Jim tiptoed over to him, hoping to take him by surprise for once.

"Jim, I know you're there." Spock kept his eyes closed and Jim gave up trying to sneak up on him, opting instead to climb onto the bed beside him. He sat back on his heels and placed one hand on Spock's knee trying to convey his concern through the bond.

"Jim, I am fine." Spock finally opened his eyes, though he kept them centered on Kirk's, "How are you faring?"

Jim rolled his eyes, "My headache is getting better by the moment, and the cast comes off by the time our next shift starts."

Spock stayed silent, and Jim frowned. He sensed that Spock didn't want to talk about what was bothering him, so he decided to wait for the stubborn Vulcan to bring it up himself, and instead kissed him briefly before standing to change into pajamas. To his surprise, Spock followed suit. "What happened to Vulcans only needing four hours of sleep? We're technically supposed to be on duty now, so won't this mess up your sleep schedule?"

"It will not interfere with my sleeping pattern as I did not take the time to rest while you were in the medbay overnight." Spock didn't turn to look at him, and Jim's concerns only deepened.

Finally, he climbed under the covers and felt as Spock slid in behind him. Spock took no time in wrapping his arms around him, and Jim turned to face him. "Okay, seriously Spock, what's wrong. And don't give me "I'm fine" because you're clearly not."

To his surprise, Spock's arms began to shake and he removed one arm from around Jim to cover his eyes with his hand. "Spock!" Jim reached up to lay a hand on his cheek to find that the Vulcan was crying silently.

"I thought..." He trailed off, slowly lowering his hand to meet Jim's eyes and he felt Spock's terror through the bond, "There was so much blood..."

"Spock, it's okay. I'm here." Jim felt himself tearing up and quickly hugged Spock closer to him, placing a soft kiss to his forehead, "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." Spock didn't respond, but Jim felt him trembling, and began to rub soothing circles into his back.

"It is illogical, that I should feel this way when your injuries were so minor..." Spock trailed off, clearly attempting to regain control, "I should have been in the room with you. I do not think I would have been able to bear it if you had..."

He trailed off and began to shake again. Jim could feel Spock's fear in the back of his mind, and did his best to smother this with warm and comforting feelings of his own, and soon enough he felt Spock begin to relax.

"Spock, you can't always keep me safe, you of all people should know that." Jim chuckled softly, "Besides, there's always Bones to patch me up when I get into trouble. I'm not going to die on you any time soon."

"Even Doctor McCoy has his limitations."

"Don't let him hear you say that or I'll have a mutiny on my hands."

Spock exhaled in a way that told Jim he was amused by the idea of Bones' ridiculous reactions, and he mentally breathed a sigh of relief that his comforting seemed to be working.

"Ashayam."

"Yes?" Jim smiled at the Vulcan term of endearment.

"In the future, please attempt to avoid falling chandeliers. I find it has a rather ill affect on my mental stability."

Jim snorted, "Okay, T'hy'la. I will."

 **A/N**

 **I haven't written anything for Star Trek in a while, so I hope you enjoyed this little one shot!**

 **As always I love to hear your input so please favorite/follow/review!**

 **Good Memories and Nightmares**

 **\- MDL**


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